Do Demographics Matter? The Relationship between Student Characteristics and Intercultural Competence

ABSTRACT There is ample evidence that intercultural and global learning programmes can create meaningful experiences for students. Despite the consensus on the importance of intercultural competence, the processes of how students gain these skills remain ambiguous. There is a lack of concluding research on the extent to which personal characteristics can affect intercultural competence, making it difficult to capture the true impact of these programmes on students. Using Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, this study seeks to understand if student characteristics can influence intercultural competence. The data was collected from a convenience sample of 117 undergraduate students participating in four types of international and intercultural experiences. The Intercultural Development Inventory pre-test was used as an assessment tool to measure students’ intercultural competence. Applied descriptive statistics results summarised the dataset, followed by inferential statistics (simple regression, multiple regression, and chi-square test). The results indicate that 7.69% of students have an ethnorelative worldview, while 55.5% are in the transition stage from a monocultural to an ethnorelative mindset. Findings complement previous studies that race/ethnicity and gender are significant variables impacting intercultural competence. Our results provide a framework to higher education professionals for effective curriculum design and more accurate assessments of programme effectiveness.